As Mamdani looks to City Hall, de Blasio reemerges

NEW YORK — As Zohran Mamdani mulls staffing up as New York City mayor, the Democratic nominee has an obvious starting point: people from the administration of former Mayor Bill de Blasio, who swept into City Hall a decade ago with a singular focus on economic inequality.

“There's a lot of people from my administration who'd be excited to work for him if he was mayor,” de Blasio told POLITICO a day after Mamdani’s primary victory. “We credentialed a whole generation of progressives to be ready to serve in senior positions in city government. So I do think he's got a pretty deep bench to draw on.”

Mamdani is the prohibitive favorite in the November general election. If he succeeds, the assemblymember would inherit a sprawling city government led by appointees of one of the men he needs to defeat, Mayor Eric Adams. The challenge of filling top positions will be made even more daunting by the fact that the 33-year-old with no direct city government experience has only managed a staff of five before the campaign and lacks the rolodex — or iPhone contacts — of many of his predecessors.

Mamdani, a democratic socialist, would be under tremendous pressure to keep city services moving and deliver on his key campaign promises like enacting universal, free child care, while facing off against a hostile Trump administration and a local press corps eager to point out the failures of government.

All of that requires a staff that knows the tripwires of city government, and Mamdani has already been leaning on old de Blasio hands for advice. The former mayor’s social services commissioner Steve Banks and his friend and political adviser Patrick Gaspard were both at Mamdani’s victory party. Mamdani has said he’s talked to Amit Singh Bagga, a de Blasio admin veteran, as well as Maria Torres-Springer, who held a variety of top jobs under de Blasio before joining — and resigning from — Adams’ City Hall.

The interest is mutual, according to a former de Blasio administration official granted anonymity to speak freely about private conversations.

“I got a ton of texts from people, de Blasio alums,” after Mamdani’s win, this person said. “There’s definitely an appetite of those who have been in exile for four years who are eager to come back.”

De Blasio embraced democratic socialism as a young man and, even as he distanced himself from the socialist wing of the party, proudly boosted Bernie Sanders for president in 2020.

His inner circle as mayor included lefties like Emma Wolfe from the Working Families Party and Maya Wiley, an alum of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and the Open Society Foundation. But he also hired top leaders with a different world view, like Alicia Glen, who joined the administration from Goldman Sachs, and NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton, who’d built his reputation in Republican Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s administration.

“To get a progressive vision achieved, you cannot just hire progressives. You need the most capable people who share your broad aspirations,” de Blasio said.

The former mayor’s message was echoed across conversations with six former de Blasio administration officials, who were eager to share advice. Focus on the big jobs first, they counseled, like police commissioner and schools chancellor. Be humble and don’t underestimate how sprawling city government is. And for that matter, don’t micromanage agencies.

“One of the biggest de Blasio mistakes was he spent a lot of time worrying about the commissioners and what was going on outside the building, and he didn’t spend time thinking about how to run his City Hall,” said another former aide who was granted anonymity to speak freely.

Mamdani’s campaign declined multiple interview requests, and he has spoken very little about who he’d hire if elected mayor — saying it would be “premature to make any personnel commitments at this time” at a press conference Thursday.

In a statement, Mamdani campaign spokesperson Lekha Sunder said the candidate has continued to meet with city government officials “whose leadership he admires” after winning the Democratic primary. “Zohran knows that the key to be a successful mayor is to build a team of competent, committed and innovative professionals — and looks forward to doing so once he enters office in January.”

Mamdani has shown an interest in looking outside his ideological cohort. After railing against billionaires on the campaign trail, he said he’d consider asking NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch, a scion of one of the city’s richest families, to stay on the job. “I need not agree with each person I hire on every single issue,” he told The New York Times before the primary

Naturally, power players — many that Mamdani doesn’t agree with on every single issue — are already lining up trying to give him advice. Attorney General Letitia James and Partnership for New York City President Kathy Wylde both encouraged Mamdani to keep Tisch, The New York Times reported. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez told the Times she’d be leaning on him to hire an administration “of extraordinary expertise and experience.” And Assemblymember Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn told POLITICO she hopes to make suggestions too.

”I’ve been around for Eric (Adams), I’ve been around for Bill de Blasio. So I would definitely like to play a role in recommending people,” she said. The Brooklyn Democratic Party leader, who endorsed Cuomo in the primary, shifted her support to Mamdani for the general election and downplayed political labels.

“Whether you're a socialist, whether you're a centrist, moderate, whatever — people are going to be coming to his City Hall to work on how we're going to make these things affordable,” she said.

Mamdani has also praised Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, who’s added hundreds of positions to her city government staff. But Mamdani has made it known he admires de Blasio, calling him the best mayor of his lifetime. The two have spoken “about a number of things” over the course of his campaign, de Blasio said. But they haven’t talked about staffing an administration, and the ex-mayor was hesitant to do so.

“You can't take your eye off that ball,” de Blasio said of the general election. “Beware. Don't count your chickens before they hatch, or bad things happen.”

Mamdani’s campaign has been working on staff changes with an eye towards the general election — and beyond. Jeffrey Lerner, an aide to former U.S. Sen. Laphonza Butler (D-Calif.), is his new communications director, and Deandra Khan, who was a senior adviser at 32BJ SEIU, was hired to the political team after the union backed Mamdani for the general. He’ll be getting a new campaign manager too, while Elle Bisgaard-Church, who held that role during the primary, will take a more strategy-based role with an eye towards the transition, according to four people familiar with internal discussions.

If Mamdani wins, other names will inevitably be floated for staff jobs, come Jan. 1, 2026. City Comptroller and mayoral campaign cheerleader Brad Lander told New York magazine he was “eager to help however I can” when asked if he’d work for the administration. City Council Education Committee Chair Rita Joseph said she’s “been getting a lot of calls” from friends about potentially being named schools chancellor, but said she hasn’t talked to Mamdani about it. She spent 22 years as an educator, she notes, and would “love to be part of the transition team” after formally endorsing Mamdani on Friday. Jamaal Bowman, a former member of Congress and middle school principal who endorsed Mamdani in the primary, has also been floated as schools chancellor, the New York Post reported. 

Mamdani’s allies know the pressure will be on him to deliver if he wins. At his election night party, when victory seemed secure, Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso came up and hugged Bowman. “We’ve got to govern, though,” Reynoso said. “We’ve got to show the world that we can govern, progressives can govern.”

Bowman agreed: “All hands on deck. 100 percent.”